mills



April 3, 1934. G. MILLS 1,953,426

HOOP

Filed 001;. 17, 1932 Goldie Mills Patented Apr. 3, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

My invention relates to hoops, it being my object to provide a hoop which can be driven much more easily than the prior hoops and which can be steered or guided without difficulty.

An object of the invention is the provision of a hoop having an external circumferential groove whereby a firm tread is provided along with a guiding feature for the trundle.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a trundle of special form for driving and guiding the hoop.

Having in view these objects and others which will be pointed out in the following description, I will now refer to the drawing, in which Figure 1 is an illustration showing both the hoop and the trundle in operative position.

Figure 2 is a plan view illustrating the guiding features.

Figure 3 is a sectional view of the hoop immediately above the point of contact with the trundle.

The hoop 10 as shown in the various figures is circular and it is provided with an exterior groove 11 in its outer surface. At the edges of the groove 11 the hoop presents two circular spaced treads which tend to keep the hoop moving in a straight line and which greatly facilitate the guiding or steering of the hoop The trundle 12 is more or less frustroconical in shape having a relatively wide hand grip at its outer end and a relatively narrow contact end where it bears against the inner wall of the groove of the hoop. The trundle for convenience is fitted to the hoop by means of a ring 13 which may be either circular as shown at 13' or oblong as shown at 13". The ring 13 may be made in any other of a large number of shapes, the ones shown in the drawing being merely illustrative. Their purpose is to keep the trundle 12 in contact with the hoop 10.

The trundle 12 has a rounded end as best shown in Figure 3 and the end in contact with the hoop is beveled on its upper side. This provides a fiat surface so that the trundle contacts at all times with the hoop at two points which are spaced slightly apart. The advantage of this construction is that in guiding the hoop to one side or the other, a very slight twist of the trundle will cause one of the two edges to bear a little heavier against one side of the groove than against the other. The result is that the steering movement is very sensitively responsive to the slight movements imparted by the operator of the hoop.

The hoop is manipulated in the maimer shown in Figure 1. The manipulation of the hoop is very much easier than that of the prior hoops because of the special features of the hoop and of the trundle. The two narrow rims facilitate the guiding since the hoop is thus less liable to be deflected by irregularities in the surface over which it travels. The groove in the rim makes it very much easier to hold the trundle in operative position against the hoop. While it is much easier for the novice to drive my hoop than it is for him to drive the prior hoops,

a certain amount of skill is easily acquired for getting the best results from my hoop. The trundle at its contacting end is so designed as to facilitate steering but skill in steering is obtained only through practice.

The hoop is designed to travel over all kinds of surfaces including soft ground as well as hard pavements and sidewalls. Children may stretch a tight rope between two posts and seat 5 the hoop on the tight rope. If this rope is positioned low enough, the children may walk alongside of it and drive the hoop the length of the rope.

Having thus described my invention in such full, clear, and exact terms that its construction and operation will be readily understood by others skilled in the art to which it pertains, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A trundle for a hoop having an exterior circumferential groove, said trundle being frustroconical and having a rounded. contact extremity adapted for positioning within the groove of the hoop, a loop pivotally secured to said trundle to loosely embrace said hoop and a flattened bevel on the side adjacent the hoop whereby said trundle will contact with the hoop at two transversely spaced points to facilitate steering of the hoop.

2. A trundle for a hoop having an exterior circumferential groove, said trundle being frustoconical and having a rounded contact extremity adapted for positioning within the groove of the hoop, a flattened bevel on the side adjacent to the hoop whereby said trundle will contact with the hoop at two transversely spaced points to facilitate steering of the hoop, and means pivotally secured on said trundle and adapted for slidable attachment to the hoop for maintaining said flattened bevel against the annular concave surface of the hoop.

GOLDIE MILLS. 

